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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Awakening 2 by Jeanie Grey Blog Tour

Title: Awakening 2

Author: Jeanie Grey

Series: Lilly Frank (Novella)

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Self Published

Release Date: July 1 2013

Blurb/Synopsis:

The second book in The Lilly Frank
series joins Torren and Lilly in northern Italy, where Torren tries
to help Lilly adjust to her sensitive new vampire body and win her
love before she discovers the real reason behind his interest in her.

A newly made vampire requires a certain
amount of time to get used to her new body and heightened senses. But
Torren's worried that if Lilly doesn't hurry up, she'll be dead
before she ever gets the chance to adjust to life as a vampire.

Word among vampires is that someone's
hunting their kind, and it's not a quick death if you're caught. This
killer likes to torture the victims first, and all signs indicate
that he or she is circling ever-closer to Torren and Lilly.

Book Links

In the odd moments when he slept, he
was plagued by nightmares of finding her gone. Or worse, dead. One
nightmare was particularly vivid and stayed in his brain for days. In
it, he was cradling her in his arms.

She’s open and bleeding. There’s
blood everywhere. It’s all over him. So much blood. He doesn’t
know how to stop it. He’s trying, but everywhere he touches opens a
fresh wound and more blood comes pouring out of her body. She’s
unconscious. She’s dying. He has to stop it. He’s practically
bathed in her blood now. It’s all over his hands, his clothes, his
face. He can taste it on his lips.

This is when he realizes that the
scent of her blood isn’t triggering his hunger.

This is when he realizes that he is
human again.

And he knows, with the unfounded
certainty one finds in dreams, that it is her blood that has changed
him.

When he awoke, the first thing he’d
do was check to make sure he could still hear her. If he had things
his way, he’d never be more than a few steps away from her at all
times. But since she couldn’t bear it, he made sure to be no more
than two rooms away. At that distance he could still hear her
heartbeat, and if he could still hear her, then she was still there.
Still there and alive.

He didn’t know what he’d do if she
were gone. The thought alone was enough to send him into a panic.
After all these years of waiting, of watching. After all he’d done
for her. After all he’d done to gain her trust, the time he’d
invested, the sacrifices he’d made to bring her to this point. She
couldn’t leave him. She just couldn’t.

But that trust is misplaced, isn’t
it? Maybe you shouldn’t have deceived her, whispered a voice
inside him.

First
thing’s first. Thank you so much for participating in the Awakening
2 tour and having me on
your blog! :D

Most of my favorite authors are
indie or self-pubbed, what made you decide to go that route?

Probably
the top reason was that I’m impatient. :) It takes a lot of time an
energy to query and wait for answers. But another big reason is that
I’ve never been a big fan the idea that a few people in the world
get to decide what the rest of us read. And the third reason was that
self-publishing was a challenge to myself – a challenge to get over
my perfectionism and just to put something out there and see what
happens. I want readers to decide whether my work is worth reading,
not me or a publishing company.

What was one of the most
surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Hmm.
Originally I had planned for Torren to have lied to Lilly and have
turned Jimmy into a vampire in exchange for information about
Charlotte’s killer. This, I thought, would be the perfect source of
huge conflict between Lilly and Torren toward the end of Book 2.
Well, I was about three quarters of the way done with Awakening
2, working toward the
climax and trying to figure out how to bring Jimmy back, when Jimmy
told me he was dead. That was certainly a surprise, and it changed my
whole view of Torren as well as opened up some other possibilities
for the source of conflict between them in Book 3.

Which of your characters are you
most like? Least like?

Lilly
and Torren both sprang from my ribs. I can relate to Lilly’s
disconnection from herself in Book 1 and to the terrifying and
confusing process of coming back to life, so to speak, that she goes
through in this series. And I drew from my own insecurities in
relationship – and from my dependence on a particular strategy for
meeting my needs – for Torren. His desperation when it comes to
holding on to Lilly is something I have felt before. And his narrow
view of what he needs to make him happy is something I’ve
experienced, too.

I
think Jamie and I have the least in common. As a result of writing
Awakening 2
I understand him a lot better, though.

Do you have a particular writing
habit?

Oh my
god – I wish! If I could figure out one habit that worked for me
all the time, I’d be able to write six books a year, no problem.
What worked for Awakening
was setting aside an entire week to do nothing but write. I tried
that again for Awakening
2, and it didn’t work.
What did end up working was sitting down to write for 30 minutes at a
time. Over and over and over.

If you had to choose, which
writer would you consider a mentor?

Uf.
This is a hard one. I would say that any writer who tells the hard
truths – those things we’re conditioned to be afraid to say –
is a writer I want to learn from and emulate. Even if I don’t agree
with what they’re saying.

Are there any new authors that
have grasped your interest?

Well,
she’s not “new” per se, but I love
the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones. Fifth
Grave Past the Light just
came out on the 9th,
and I bought it (as an ebook) and read it right away.

I also
have to say that my friend Zoey Derrick, who just self-published her
first romance novel, Finding
Love’s Wings, writes
some really damn hot sex. If my sex scenes are half as hot as hers,
then I’m happy

.

What is the hardest part of your
writing?

Actually
writing. Or maybe even before that: getting myself to sit down to do
it.

Do you have any advice for other
writers?

Write
what’s important to you, not what you think will sell. Two reasons
for this. First: when you write what’s important to you, you’re
more likely to connect with your readers. Second: even if your book
doesn’t sell, you’ll have gotten something important for yourself
out of having written it.

Describe yourself in three words.

Oh
damn I hate these things. I mean, it’s a great question, but when I
try to describe myself I either come off sounding like an egomaniac
or an insecure and perhaps slightly crazy person.

I know characters are like
children but if you could chose, who’s your favorite from your
books? Of all time?

Oh
geez. Um... Can I get back to you on this in a couple of years?

Any song or songs that could
basically sum up the overall mood of Awakening 2 ?

Hahah!
The first thing that popped into my head was “Without You” (you
know – “I can’t live if living is without you...”), but that
doesn’t really say Italy. Or vampires. Or psycho serial killer. But
if that song had a baby with Bush’s “Synapse” of the
Deconstructed
album, and that baby played the accordian, you might have a song that
captures the mood of Awakening
2.

Do you plot out your books or
just freely write them and let the characters tell you what to do
next?

Yes.
Hahah! :D But seriously, it is a mix of both. And, as is evident from
the story about Jimmy telling me he was dead, even if I plot things
out, my characters might object to what I’d planned and send me in
a different direction. I think the key is to not fight the way the
story wants to go, even if it’s not making much sense to me at
first. Stories have a way of working themselves out if you listen to
them instead of trying to force them.

If you had to choose, which
writer would you consider the biggest influence in your writing?

For
the Lilly Frank series, definitely Janet Evanovich. Which is weird,
because these books are nothing like hers.

What are your current projects?
Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I have
been working on two novels – a historical pirate romance and a
contemporary romance – and a collection of erotica short stories. I
would be delighted to give you a short excerpt from the contemporary
romance. It doesn’t have a title yet.

“When’s
the last time you had a massage?” he asked.

“It’s
been a while,” she managed to say. Why was he talking? He was
always talking at the wrong time.

“Your
husband doesn’t give you massages?” He almost sounded like he was
smiling.

A
twinge of guilt for the non-existent husband. “It’s not his
forte,” she said. She should stop this. She was giving Nick the
wrong impression entirely. She would stop it. In just a minute. Just
as soon as it stopped feeling quite so good.

Nick’s
hands were strong and warm. His fingers zeroed in on the knots in her
muscles, pressing firmly into them, pushing deep without hurting her.
He was really very good at this. She imagined what it would feel like
to have those hands finally touching her bare skin, caressing her
body. Those long, strong, capable fingers on her breasts and hips. On
her inner thighs. And...in other places.

One
of his hands rested on her hip while the other moved up to massage
the muscles in her neck. Starting at the base and working up toward
her hairline. His fingers brushed the bottom of her wig. Her wig!

Serran
jerked and twisted on the stool. Her hip brushed against the front of
his jeans and she felt his erection. This was not good.

“This
isn’t right. I should go,” she said. She launched off the stool
and pushed past him, panic removing all concern for proper manners.

Thanks
again so much for having me on your blog! :) I hope you enjoy
Awakening 2.

Jeanie Grey is a feminist reader and
writer of romance and erotica who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her
short stories have been published on deadlyeverafter.com
and thedarkerhalf.com. To date, over
1200 copies of her first novella, Awakening (2012), have been
downloaded. Awakening 2, the second book in the Lilly Frank series,
joins Lilly and Torren in northern Italy, where Torren attempts to
win Lilly's love before she finds out the truth about his interest in
her. The final installment in the Lilly Frank series, Awakening 3,
is slated to be released in 2014.